Reading some comments in another blog this morning I suddenly stumbled across a graphic that turned out to be the lead part of an absolutely astounding article on a website called The Trump Watchdog
The site’s author — name not revealed, has apparently been digging and digging and digging in an effort to figure out possible links and sublinks and connections between not just Trump and Putin, but an incredibly tangled web of U.S. and Russian individuals and organizations. The body of the post proceeds to list at least 57 connections (and counting) some of them well documented and others listed, but their significance not yet fully understood.
The heavy use of offshore accounts, the deliberate mis-naming of shell companies, the appearance of organizations and individuals like The Blackstone Group, Pete Peterson and such familiar names as Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, Steven Schwarzman, Alex Oronov and Andreii Artemenko, Rosenoft, Carter Page…..the web is incredible.
With this all comes the continuing question. If...as the Trump camp claims, all these Russian contacts were “no big deal,” what other countries were the Trump folks in contact to this degree, not just after election but for months and even years before the election? Just Russia it seems and of course the question is what was there about Russia that made it so special?
The obvious answer seems to be cash because if you look at so much of this it involves shadowy organizations moving huge amounts of cash around and in many cases, cash provided via secretive back channel maneuvers involving Russian Mafia, oligarchs and banks with the reputation for money laundering.
Here’s just a sampling of what is listed on the site:
- The Dossier Christopher Steele created said that Igor Sechin along with Oleg Orovinkin were working on a deal to sell 19.5% of Rosneft to Trump in exchange for dropping sanctions. This deal relied on Carter Page, who resigned as a Trump advisor in September. After the election, a 19.5% deal went through, Oleg Orovkin was found dead in his car and the guy behind the Russian Hacking was arrested for treason in Russia.
- The Rosneft deal is definitely linked to Trump through a vast network of holding companies. The 19.5% was through a Singapore company using Caymans offshore accounts. QHG shares was the holding company of the 19.5% sale. QHG’s disclosure form stated that it used to be called CATALPO PTE, but no such company existed. Perhaps they did that to confuse people. Anyways, a company with the same information called CATALPA PTE did exist though. Catalpa shared an address with the Intertrust Group. Intertrusts filing shows an affiliation with Walkers Global which is the affiliation used to incorporate QHG. Intertrust is owned by the Blackstone Group. If that name seems familiar, it is because Blackstone CEO is Stephen Schwarzman, one of Trump’s senior economic advisors. Uncovered thanks to this amazing Twitter user
- The Blackstone Group was cofounded by Stephen Schwarzman and CNI Board Member Peter Peterson.
- The Dossier also claims Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen traveled to meet with Russians, which he denied. Recently, it came out that he was working with Felix Sater to broker a Ukranian-Russia peace deal. Cohen, Sater, and a member of the Ukranian Parliament, Andreii Artemenko sat down for dinner to discuss Ukraine, Russia, and sanctions.
- Alex Oronov working with Cohen and Artemenko developed the plan which they planned on leaving on Michael Flynns desk until he had to resign. Oronov mysteriously died at the beginning of March.
- Felix Sater claimed to be a Senior Advisor to Trump , which Trump claimed not to remember. Sater had his own office in Trump Tower. Sater has been connected to organized crime and his father is in the Russian Mafia
The site author is encouraging submission from readers of any additional links they know of or have questions about, as he (or she) works to further expand the web of information and links needing further research. If even a portion of this linkage is true, the depths of Russian involvement in our government, both before the election and now are truly frightening. And given Wikileaks demonstrated ties to Russia in the matter of Democratic hacked emails, the latest dump of data from the CIA strongly suggests that Russian involvement has not diminished.
That dump has to be creating a firestorm of fury inside the US intelligence community, and THAT is NOT going to be a good thing for Mr. Trump. Not if our spy system seems this country threatened by a President who increasingly seems to be working on behalf of Russia.